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In September final yr, some filming passed off on our road in Highbury, north London. This isn’t uncommon for a few causes. The first is sensible: the road I reside in is a very quiet thoroughfare due to a posh one-way system; hardly any automobiles drive down it, making it perfect for quiet, undisturbed filming.
The second: I’m surrounded by media luvvie sorts – like myself – the kind who let movie crews into their properties in return for a bit of additional money or the opportunity of exhibiting off their swanky kitchen islands earlier than placing their properties available on the market.
We’ve had ITV movie a few of their idents (the mini-films they air to promote their very own channel) on our road; Rosamund Pike (an area) has filmed a Hollywood movie across the nook and I can hardly come out to the outlets with out bumping into Paul Mescal going for a run, exhibiting off his Gladiator II honed pecs.
So I didn’t bat an eyelid when a crew, with accompanying gazebos for catering, a trailer with Portaloos, and males with rolls of gaffer tape, arrange on our highway. Walking the canine, I used to be stopped by a well mannered runner asking if I might wait a minute in order that I didn’t spoil the scene being filmed. I requested him what the present was. ‘Well, I’m not meant to let you know,’ he stated, ‘but as I’m inflicting an inconvenience I’ll. Do you keep in mind Motherland? Well, it is a spin-off known as Amandaland.’ It was solely then I appeared up from my cockapoo and noticed the actress Lucy Punch with Joanna Lumley preparing for his or her scene.
Pictured: Lucy Punch (left) and Joanna Lumley (proper), stars of BBC collection Amandaland
Pictured: Cast and crew collect as filming takes place in Highbury, north London
I couldn’t get residence quick sufficient to inform my 16-year-old daughter, Celia, who was hysterical with pleasure. ‘You are kidding me? In our street!?’ she squealed. Motherland is considered one of her very favorite reveals and the monstrous, snobby Amanda – as many followers will attest – the most effective character. To suppose that they had chosen our beautiful, tree-lined Islington oasis as their setting. The writers had clearly determined that Amanda wanted to depart stuffy Chiswick in west London and journey north to the place there are higher eating places, fancier delis, and – frankly – a extra stylish set of individuals. This has at all times been an space the place barristers (we’re strolling distance from the Inns of Court) have chosen to reside, the place novelists rub shoulders with TV administrators and the place you stumble upon Nigel Slater within the native butcher.
Except, as we then all rushed again to rubber-neck the filming, we observed one thing unusual. The manufacturing crew had left a tipped-over buying trolley on the pavement; garbage had been strewn outdoors Amanda’s flat. What was occurring?
Then I noticed that the home they’d chosen as Amanda’s new abode was, properly, one of many extra scruffy ones on the street. Still very good, and possibly well worth the £1.6 million that a mean home within the N5 Highbury postcode fetches, however in want of a lick of paint.
The BBC press launch, saying the present, laid naked the total horror: “Post her divorce, Amanda has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it SoHa”. So, the alpha mum has fallen on laborious occasions and the situation scouts thought our road – with some suave set dressing – was downmarket sufficient to face in for the realm round Wormwood Prison.
Pictured: Filming of Amandaland in Highbury, north London – Lucy Punch steps out of the yellow camper van
Pictured: The manufacturing crew leaves a tipped-over buying trolley on the pavement
Excuse me! But that may be a slur on the nice identify of Highbury, an space of London with extra wildly overpriced cinnamon rolls and cortado coffees than Notting Hill, frankly.
I practically spat out my wine once I noticed within the first episode that Amanda’s mom, performed by Joanna Lumley, comes round with a “little tuck parcel from Waitrose, now that you’ve only got a Tesco Metro”. What?! Highbury’s major grocery store *is* a Waitrose, although a few of us store within the ludicrously costly Yield delicatessen on the finish of the highway, which sells biodynamic wines and people scrumptious jarred Brindisa Navarrico Chickpeas. Or we pop to the Ottolenghi, a brief stroll away on Upper road.
Are we as swanky as Chelsea? No. Do properties fetch as a lot as Belgravia? Nowhere close to. But this is without doubt one of the very nicest corners of London – no matter Amandaland may recommend.
The sleight of hand in relation to the situation, nonetheless, doesn’t diminish from some very sharp writing. Amanda could have suffered from a messy divorce and collapse in circumstances, however she stays very humorous.
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